Pasta Incaciata (No, That's Not a Swearword)

Aubergines, eggplant, brinjals, whatever you want to call them, I have to think of more ways to prepare them.  Our aubergine plant is going crazy.  We've probably harvested close to twenty, there's six more on the bush almost ready to harvest, and a whole lot of flowers.  Fried aubergines is just not cutting it anymore.  This is what lead to the wonderful swearword:  INCACIATA.


I know it sounds like a spell from Harry Potter, but I promise you, this is a wonderful dish to make ahead for the next night.  We would've had this on Tuesday night (the 21st), but I overestimated the amount of pasta needed, meaning we had the leftover pasta for dinner on Tuesday, and the incaciata for dinner yesterday.  I promise you, it isn't as complicated as it sounds.

Egg Free What?!?!?

Before I can go into detail with a statement from Zumba that nearly had me in a seisure I have to mentioun our garden.  As mentioned previously, we grow our own herbs, but we also have a few other food producing trees (if you can call an aubergine bush, a variety of 3 chilli bushes, a blue berry bush, and a pomegranate bush as a few others).  Our aubergine bush has been in overdrive during January, as to date, we have harvested a total of 9 HUGE aubergines, and there's a whole lot more baby aubergines.  Can you say happy plant?

Sitting Down for Tea - A Lost Art

I like the older traditions.  There, I said it.  Many of our friends are mildly surprised when they come over for tea the first time, especially if it happens to be on a weekend when I have time. I enjoy putting out the teacups, making a big pot of tea, and having the sugar bowl and milk pitcher on the side.  I never planned to host a tea, but it happened that way by pure chance.

Garden Party

Let's be honest.  A garden party is a good excuse to have wine with friends.  Our back garden has been revamped, and it looks amazing.  Just ask any of the friends that were here last night.  And we finally found a range of wine glasses we like.  No, not the normal ones (and definitely no the overpriced ones) but decent glasses that are available in the bigger sizes for red wine.  Red wine just tastes so much better in a bigger glass.  And of course, in typical Tiffany's fashion, I couldn't let the table stand bare of snacks from my side.  The interesting part is I planned the snacks under the impression today (21 January) is the Chinese New Year, however, it is only on the 28th.

It Came, It Finally Came!!!

Yes, after being almost 2 weeks overdue, my Turkish tea pot has finally arrived.  Isn't she a beauty?  Sad it may be, but I just had to use it today.  I so badly wanted to have a Turkish meal with the first pot ever brewed, but I don't have the patience to wait, so stuff it.  And how how glad I was for it.  I absolutely LOVE Turkish tea.

Turkish Food Without the Tea

Here we go with a last blog before work starts again.  Unfortunately all good things (holiday in this instance) must come to an end, however, that allows new good things to begin (that thing that I call work, so that means a day of ignoring the phone, drinking coffee and catching up with my colleagues.

I spent a good chunk of the 29th preparing Turkish snacks for when my Turkish Tea Pot arrives, so everything was kept in the freezer, ready for baking, thawing and serving.  As my pot still hasn't arrived, I decided to serve the snacks with coffee when our friends, Zumba and her husband Cum Bubble, came over for a long overdue visit.

Late Night Flowers

Husband and I have numerous friends and acquaintances, yet I can honestly say our best friends at this point, that we see regularly, would be his cousin (Lippietjies) and the fiance (Spongy).  Now the funny thing is, we met them about 5 years ago, and somehow, Husband and Lippietjies, and Spongy and I just grew into a strong group of friends.

To make this story even more interesting, Lippietjies and Husband's mothers were friends way back in the day before he was even born, and Lippietjies was friends with his older sister (let's call her Froggie).  Seems this world is rather small, as Lippietjies and Husband are also cousins from his mom's sister's side.